Day 203 Clear Vision

  

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Being pure in heart isn't about moral purity.... The people who saw and recognized the true nature of Jesus weren't morally pure: Tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes, these were the people who truly saw Jesus. 

What kind of purity peals the scales from our eyes so that we can see God? This prayer gets at it.   

  

Father in Heaven, what are we without you?

What is all that we know, vast accumulation though it be,

But a chipped fragment if we do not know you?

What is all our striving?

Could it ever encompass a world,

But a half-finished work

If we do not know you?

You, the One who is one thing and who is all.

So may you give

To the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing

To the heart, sincerity to receive this and this only

To the will, purity that wills only one thing

In prosperity, may you grant perseverance to will one thing

Amid distraction, collectedness to will one thing

In suffering, patience to will one thing.

You that gives both the beginning and the completion

May you early, at the dawn of the day,

Give to the young the resolution to will one thing

As the day wanes, may you give to the old

A renewed remembrance of that first resolution

That the first may be like the last

And the last like the first

In possession of a life that has willed only one thing,

         To know God.

                                                                                 - Søren Kierkegaard